Hutchinson Blackbird All-Season TLR Road Tyre review: ideally suited for high-mileage riders

Winter (or endurance) road tyres are definitely at the less glamorous end of the scale as far as test products go; they aren’t designed to be fast, light or aero, and it is tricky to get too excited about durability as a key characteristic.

However, roadside punctures on a cold, wet day are also not something which fills me with excitement either, so I try to avoid them as much as possible by using tyres less likely to suffer from punctures but which still have a nice feel to them on the road.

I was impressed with the performance and value of the summer-oriented Hutchinson Blackbird Race tyres when I tested them, so the pressure is on for the Blackbird All Season to reach similar standards.

Construction

As you’d expect from something billed as an all-season tyre, the Blackbird is heavier and sturdier than its lightweight summer sibling, with better durability too. The tubeless-ready, 30mm, 700c version on test has a claimed weight of 360g and a suggested lifespan of 6,000km+, thanks to 2.1mm thick rubber, compared to 310g and 4,000 km+ for the Race version.

I weighed my two tan-walled tyres at 349g and 353g, so slightly under the billed weight.

The rubber is lightly treaded and textured, with Hutchinson’s MachTread 3.0 compound in the centre, complemented by SafeTread on the tyre's shoulders for better grip in cold and damp conditions when cornering.

Three-ply, 127tpi reinforced GridSkin sidewalls are intended to protect against cuts and pinch flats, whilst a Polyamide layer under the tread helps ward off punctures.

The tubeless version (as tested) is also hookless compatible and available in 28mm, 30mm and 32mm widths with either black or tan sidewalls, and the tube-type option is available in 26mm or 28mm, again in black or tan.

The ride

I first used the tyres with WTB TPU tubes and then tubeless on a set of DT Swiss ERC 1600 Spline wheels. Installation went as well as tubeless road tyre fitting can go, which is to say they went on with minimal use of tyre levers and inflated at first attempt using my Airshot. Air retention proved to be about par for tubeless road tyres too, so weekly air top-ups were required, but nothing too dramatic. I ran them at 65pi, as per my habit (and in agreement with the online calculators).

Width as fitted to the DT Swiss ERC 1600 Spline wheels with 22mm inner rim width was 30.5mm - a rim with a wider internal width could probably add another millimetre or so to this.

As with most of the UK, the road surfaces around me are mixed to say the least, and even the few non-potholed roads are rarely smooth. This is bad for riding but good for tyre testing, and quickly highlights how a tyre feels.

The tyres and I have covered over 1,000km through autumn and winter so far, in conditions ranging from quite pleasant to rather less so. The roads have been dry, wet, icy and grit-covered, sometimes all on one ride, and the tyres haven’t missed a beat. They haven’t punctured and don’t appear to have any cuts or damage, and there is not much evidence of wear either, making Hutchinson’s durability claims not unreasonable.

I was perhaps a tiny bit disappointed with the feel of the tyre, though. It is in no way bad or harsh, but it is less supple than I expected from a 30mm wide road tyre. It certainly isn't a major criticism, but it wasn’t the cloud-like feel that I was, perhaps unrealistically, hoping for from a tyre of this width.

Clearly, it is not yet possible to entirely have your cake and eat it in terms of the balance between performance, weight, puncture protection and ride feel. The protective Gridskin sidewalls and extra-thick, durable rubber seem to have taken their toll on the tyre’s suppleness when compared with a summer tyre or the smoothest of the endurance tyres available.

Of course, this trade-off should mean greater durability and fewer punctures.

I am not in any way saying this is an inferior tyre to something slightly more supple like the Continental GP5000 AS TR or Schwalbe One TLE, just that its priorities are slightly different.

As someone who has inadvertently ridden a set of winter tyres down to the carcass, hidden from view as they were by my mudguards, the Blackbird’s durability is certainly appealing. They simply worked well day in, day out through some fairly miserable conditions, and I never thought about switching them out for something else.

Value and conclusion

Value is a strong point of the Hutchinson Blackbird All Season tyres. With an RRP of £62 / $80 they are still pricey, but they are less expensive than many of their similarly premium competitors whilst still providing good on-road performance, easy tubeless setup, and seemingly great durability (which further improves their value). Considering their claimed lifespan, the weight is very reasonable too, and no more than most other tubeless endurance tyres.

Whilst it is nigh on impossible to objectively assess a tyre’s real-world puncture-protection, subjectively, the Blackbird All Seasons have survived a couple of months' use unscathed and have been an overall pleasant experience to ride on and live with. There are cheaper tyres, there are more supple tyres and no doubt there are tyres with even better puncture resistance, but the Hutchinsons seem like a great all-rounder for winter training or endurance riding.

Having ridden and tested a fair number of ‘winter’ or ‘endurance’ tyres, I’d say that the Blackbird All Seasons sits somewhere in the middle of the options available in almost all respects - weight, suppleness and price - whilst potentially leading the way in terms of longevity.

Not super exciting, but very worthwhile all the same.